A WEST AUSTRALIAN MODEL.
The scheme especially interests me because—in its relation to migration within the Empire, or what we wrongly call emigration—its aim is group settlement on the model created by that thoughtful statesman, Sir James Mitchell, in Western Australia. Now Western Australia is at the moment the one part of Australia that is really flourishing, and its rapid and Solid development is certain. There is no lovelier or richer on more various district within the Empire than the South-West corner, nor any more romantic than the North-West. It is true that the group settlements have not all been doing well, either on the Peel Estates or elsewhere, in most cases because the farms were too small ; but the idea is the right idea. The " Jimmiegrants " have proved so much ; and we should be wise to call in this bit of the New World to redress the balance of the Old. Our own land in England is available for group settlement. As things are, thousands of English children spend the years from fourteen to seventeen chiefly in forgetting how to read and write.
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